Tropical house Frutigen
| Tropical house Frutigen | |
|---|---|
| legal form | Division of the Coop |
| Seat | Frutigen |
| Number of employees | 75 |
| sales | 5.8 million CHF |
| Website | tropenhaus-frutigen.ch |
| As of December 31, 2018 | |
The Tropenhaus Frutigen is a greenhouse and a breeding facility in the Swiss municipality of Frutigen ( Canton Bern ). In the extensive tropical house, which is open to the public for a fee, exotic fish and plants are bred and displayed in a tropical climate. The heat is obtained from the warm mountain water exiting the Lötschberg base tunnel .
The Tropenhaus Frutigen with its 75 employees is home to the first sturgeon farm in the Alpine region and the only Swiss company for the production of caviar .
location
The tropical house is located on the Engstlige , a right tributary of the Kander , outside the center of the village of Frutigen near the airfield and around two kilometers north of the first test station.
Water and energy supply
On the north side of the Lötschberg base tunnel, around 100 liters of water at a temperature of around 19 ° C escape every second. Every day, around 9,000 cubic meters of water leave the tunnel at a pressure of 45 bar . The mountain water comes mainly from the limestone layers of the Doldenhorn cover, which the tunnel crosses below the Kander and Gastern valleys .
The water is collected in the mountain with a drainage system and diverted in closed pipes - separated into mountain and dirty water - to the two portals of the tunnel. From its apex to a good 828 m above sea level. M. to the north portal at Frutigen, which is almost 52 meters lower, a distance of 14.8 kilometers is drained. On the longer stretch south of the tunnel apex, the water reaches the Rhone near Raron ( Canton Valais ) . A transfer pumping station in the tunnel makes it possible to discharge mountain water from the north side via the apex into the Valais. The polluted tunnel wastewater is directed into retention systems, checked for pollutants and, if necessary, retained.
Due to the depth of the base tunnel below the surface and the resulting geothermal heat flow, the mountain water has a relatively constant temperature of around 19 ° C. With a direct discharge into the Kander, the mountain river could be excessively warmed, especially at low water in winter, which would affect the fish stocks, because the Kander is important as an ascent and spawning water, especially for the endangered lake trout , which spawn here in winter . Based on the water protection legislation , the cantonal authorities have therefore decreed that the water temperature of the Kander may not increase by more than 0.5 ° C when mountain water is discharged from the Lötschberg base tunnel.
In order to meet these requirements, the Bernische Kraftwerke (BKW) extract excess energy from the mountain water with a heat pump . For the main system to go from an energetically usable amount of water from the mountain of an average of 85 liters per second, which at 19 ° C a power of 6.83 MW corresponds. In addition to the preparation of hot water for the fish breeding tanks and the heating energy for the greenhouse and visitor areas, neighboring companies such as BLS AG are also supplied with heating as part of a local heating network .
Solar panels are installed on the roof of the visitor building . The solar power plant supplies around 140 MWh throughout the year .
history
Before the tropical house in Frutigen was built , a first pilot system was operated at the Helke north portal of the Lötschberg base tunnel as part of a research project, for which around 20 liters of warm mountain water per second was diverted in the Kandertal service tunnel .
The project for the current tropical house began in 2002 with a feasibility study . In 2003 Tropenhaus Frutigen AG was founded with its headquarters in Frutigen. The changes to the zoning plan necessary for the construction of the plant were approved by the voters of Frutigen in 2005. Thanks to the support of the KTI Innovation Promotion Agency, additional investors were found who pledged around 16 million francs in capital. As an important long-term partner, the retail company Coop entered at the beginning of 2007 with venture capital and at the same time created a sales channel for the company. The planning work began in summer 2007, and in May 2008 the start of construction was celebrated with the groundbreaking ceremony . The opening took place on November 21, 2009. In 2017 Tropenhaus Frutigen AG was incorporated into the Coop cooperative.
Architecture and structure
The tropical house is divided into three parts: the glass greenhouse in which the plants are grown, the outdoor area with the fish basin and the main building with the visitor entrance and a permanent exhibition on fishing and sturgeon. All three areas are connected to one another by a tour and are wheelchair accessible. Attached to the greenhouse are two restaurants with an event zone. All rooms can be combined for events with up to 250 people.
GIM Gauer Itten Messerli from Bern was responsible for the architecture and design under the overall planning of Emch + Berger from Bern and the construction management by Marti Architektur from Frutigen. The facade consists of 67 individual elements with rock-like structures. The main building is built according to the Minergie standard. The interior of the facility is characterized by different room sequences and transitions.
breed
Tropical plants
For the cultivation and maintenance of the plants, the Tropenhaus Frutigen was able to benefit from the experience of the Tropenhaus in Wolhusen , which has been growing tropical fruits since 1999. An annual production of 20 to 40 tons of bananas , papaya , mangoes , dwarf bananas , guavas , physalis , litchi , durian , mangosteen , grapefruit , pomegranates , avocados , pineapples and kumquat is planned for the greenhouse . In addition, various spices such as ginger , chilli , vanilla and pepper are grown. The fruits and spices are also processed directly into drinks and meals in the affiliated restaurants.
Papayas
Bananas
pineapple
chili
Fish farming
The tropical house is home to the first alpine sturgeon farm and the only facility in Switzerland where caviar is produced.
The entire facility is designed for 60,000 sturgeon - mainly Siberian sturgeon ( Acipenser baerii ) and sterlet ( Acipenser ruthenus ). Later, around 80,000 Siberian sturgeon were kept. 60 kilograms of fish per cubic meter of water would be possible. However, since production is to be based on biological principles, this type of utilization is not aimed for. In fact, after a few years of operation, it was no more than 35 kilograms per cubic meter. The sturgeons are in an outdoor pool , the water of which is renewed every one or two hours.
The company's goal is to produce two to three tons of caviar annually with a sales value of 2000 Swiss francs per kilogram. The products are sold to guests and regional gastronomy.
The fish are sorted by weight once a year so that they get the right amount of feed, which is important for the yield and quality of meat and caviar production. Among other things, insects serve as food because they come very close to the natural diet of sturgeon in terms of amino and fatty acids . Feeding takes place automatically, with the amount of feed being calculated by computer based on the number and age of the sturgeon. The pelvic floor is smooth and self-cleaning, so that the sturgeon feeding on the bottom is not disturbed in its eating behavior by impurities and grows more slowly due to less food intake.
At the start of production, the company imported 1200 young animals. Newly bought fish were first kept in a quarantine station . Visitors are also shown other species of sturgeon such as albino sterlet , spoonbill and beluga .
The tropical house transfers the sludge from the fish to the EcoGas-Frutigen biogas plant to ferment it so that electricity can be produced. The system went online on June 26, 2012. Other organic waste such as sludge from the Frutigen and Kandersteg sewage treatment plants and gastro waste are processed and fermented in a co-substrate module. The system has an electrical output of 64 kW and a thermal output of 92 kW.
Recognition awards
In 2007 the Tropenhaus Frutigen project was awarded the Evenir Prize by the Petroleum Association . On November 27, 2009, the tropical house was the 17th recipient of the Swiss Innovation Prize 2009 from SRG SSR idée suisse . On August 26, 2010, the Tropenhaus received the ICD Award as an innovative trendsetter from the International Chef Days Davos . In 2010 the tropical house received the milestone in the sustainability category and in 2011 it received 3rd place in the Zurich Climate Prize . Tropenhaus Frutigen received the Swiss Location Award 2017 in 10th place in the category of the most beautiful adventure locations in Switzerland.
literature
- Christoph Schlotter: Heating with warm mountain water: Frutigen uses the water from the Lötschberg base tunnel to generate heat . Online, PDF, 340 kB
- Federal Office for Vocational Training and Technology , Promotion of Innovations CTI: CTI Success Story, organic caviar thanks to the Lötschberg base tunnel . Page no longer available , search in web archives: online, PDF, 93.6 kB
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b c Factsheet Tropenhaus Frutigen. (PDF; 738 kB) In: report.coop.ch. Retrieved September 3, 2019 .
- ↑ a b c d e Swiss television: Einstein (ed.): The pitfalls of sturgeon breeding . November 19, 2009 (no longer available online).
- ↑ a b c d e f g h i Federal Office for Vocational Training and Technology, Promotion of Innovations CTI: CTI Success Story, organic caviar thanks to the Lötschberg base tunnel . Bern March 2007.
- ↑ a b Case study Tropenhaus Frutigen. (PDF) In: Jobst Willers Engineering AG. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g Christoph Schlotter: Heating with warm mountain water: Frutigen uses the water from the Lötschberg base tunnel to generate heat . March 2008.
- ↑ a b BLS AG - corporate communication (ed.): NEAT Lötschberg. Structure, operation and transport offer . May 2007.
- ^ Project weeks in the Bernese Oberland (ed.): Geothermal and renewable energies . S. 12 .
- ↑ a b company. In: Tropenhaus Frutigen. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
- ↑ Company. In: Tropenhaus Frutigen. Accessed December 30, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c Papaya from the Bernese Oberland. In: Tropenhaus Frutigen. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
- ↑ a b First alpine sturgeon breeding and caviar production. In: Tropenhaus Frutigen. Accessed December 30, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c Project Weeks Bernese Oberland (Ed.): The sturgeon and its valuable eggs . S. 9 f .
- ↑ How power for cooking can be made from the chop bone from September 27, 2013, accessed on November 15, 2013.
- ↑ EcoGas Frutigen. In: SwissEcoSystems GmbH. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
- ↑ Our awards. In: Tropenhaus Frutigen. Retrieved January 29, 2018 .
Coordinates: 46 ° 35 ′ 33 " N , 7 ° 39 ′ 20.5" E ; CH1903: six hundred and sixteen thousand six hundred thirty-four / 160160